Preparation

When you arrive for rehearsal, there should be a Cue Sheet waiting for you. The Cue Sheet calls out most of the details you will need so that you can fully understand what will take place during the service. Your training and knowledge of your job will allow you to look ahead and determine what you will be expected to do for the service.

You may be interested to know that roughly two to three weeks ahead of each service, the Production Staff receives a packet with most of this material as well as a tape of any special songs scheduled to be performed that are different from our usual song list. If your having a packet of these materials in advance would help you do your job better, please ask the Audio Director for a copy.

Time Commitment

Rehearsal schedules may vary slightly from time to time, but here is the typical time involvement we will ask of you. Rehearsal for Tuesday evening services begins at 5:00 pm and continues until just before service. The Stage Manager and Monitor Engineer will typically be free to leave the stage after the worship portion of the service is completed. For the monthly communion service, and on other specific occasions, the worship team will stay on stage throughout the service. During these services, the audio team would also be asked to stay to work on stage in support of the worship team.

After having been here for so long on Saturday, most of our volunteers head home after the worship set on Saturday, choosing to stay for the sermon on Sunday mornings. The choice, of course, is yours.

Church Attendance

We assume that your reason for serving in the Production Team at our church is one of being committed to the ministry and goals of the Church, and that you want to serve God in an area that He has drawn you to and in which He has gifted you. It's easy to be attracted by the flashing lights or the thought of being "on stage." More than one person has been drafted into the technical ministry of other churches because they made the simple mistake of standing too close to the sound booth one day. We would hope that that is not the case here, and that your successful Test Drive period with this ministry has confirmed your choice that this is where God would have you serve.

To serve in the Audio Ministry for the main services at our Church, we ask that you be a member of the Church and that you be at least 15 years old. Prior experience in sound reinforcement is helpful but not required. We encourage you to learn more about the craft of audio so that your service in this ministry would become more enjoyable as time passes. We have books and trade magazines available at church that you can borrow to help you grow in your knowledge of audio, and we will periodically hold training sessions which we will ask you to attend.

Schedules

The Audio Director will periodically create a work schedule in calendar form for all audio volunteers. As the time approaches for a new calendar, he will contact you to ask for any dates that you would like to keep clear on your personal calendar (e.g., your vacation days, business trips, and so on). Calendars are typically generated on a quarterly basis.

Schedule Changes

We realize that there will be times when a change in your personal schedule will require your arriving late for a rehearsal, or even preempt your being able to work that service at all. We have a simple system in place which ensures that our production needs will still be met. If this condition arises, you are responsible for locating and scheduling a trained replacement to work for you. As a team member, you will have a phone list of audio team volunteers to draw from. A simple solution is for you to offer to "trade" schedules with them for a future service.

Timeliness

A friend of mine once shared his philosophy about arriving on time for anything ­ "In order to be on time, you have to arrive early." Duh, yeah! But it's true that we live in a busy world, and we all tend to schedule our arrival times to the nanosecond. Please give unexpected delays the benefit of the doubt and increase your margin of error at least into the millisecond range. You should be in your position no later than five minutes before the start of each service. A more comfortable margin would be fifteen minutes prior to the start of each service.

Being Late for Rehearsal

Please call us if you expect to be late for rehearsal. Depending on how late you will be, we may be able to cover for you until you arrive.

Emergency Schedule Changes

If time allows, please still try to locate and schedule a trained replacement for you. Please make every effort to contact a person rather than a machine, and have that person spread the word for you. We suggest that you first try to reach the production staff first ­ the Audio Director, Music Minister, or other appropriate person. If you only have time to leave us a message, please try to leave messages at multiple locations to ensure that we will find out in time to give your replacement adequate time to change their schedule around. This is very IMPORTANT! Because of our own changing schedules, it is very possible that we wouldn't get your message until it's too late.

Dress Code

Your dress during services should be casual/professional. In particular, stage managers should wear dark clothing (dark slacks or black jeans are acceptable) and dark, comfortable shoes. Various needs of the service require the stage manager to walk out onto the stage during the service, and white sneakers or brightly colored clothing would be a distraction to the audience. (So buy a pair of black sneakers!?!)

Reminders

You have probably already realized that the Production Team strives for technical excellence in everything we do here at church. We believe in giving our best effort to God. You will come to appreciate the depth of our efforts the longer you stay involved as a member of the team. For example, one little thing we consider important is for us not to break the curtain line once it has been established. In other words, at the end of rehearsal we typically close the front stage curtain, and it stays closed until the start of the worship service. Likewise, at the end of the service the curtain stays closed for at least thirty minutes to allow the congregation time to leave the building. During these times, we ask that no one enter or exit the stage through the curtain. Unless you are specifically directed otherwise, please direct people traffic through the stage wings.

Ministry Goals

Here are some goals that I have for myself in my service here at our church. My prayer is that we as a ministry of this church would adopt these as our own:

1. To infuse a vision of a worship lifestyle into all those who attend. I am truly thankful for the privilege to lead a lifestyle of worship to the God of the Universe.

2. To show by example how to operate as a team and still be leaders individually. Make it your goal to minister to the Father, to your Senior Pastor, to your Music Minister, and to the church body during every service, especially those services you are assigned to work. Recognize that there is a corporate anointing that takes place when we enter into his presence with thanksgiving, and that this corporate anointing is far more powerful than we might experience alone. So don't tamper with it; instead, seek to enhance it.

3. To find ways to stir up and build up your fellow team members. Bind intimidation (2 Tim 1:6,7) Find ways that you can minister to them and stir up their God-given talents. Think twice before you speak. Be available. Don't overemphasize skill, but rather total dependence on the Lord.

4. To pursue God's best through technical excellence in everything we do. Strive to honor Him through a "whatever it takes" work ethic. (I Cor. 9:24-27) Recognize that God isn't looking for perfection, but excellence. Realize that we can minister to Him and others through a mutual desire to seek God's best.

5. Through the combination of these points, that we would continue to build and strengthen a ministry of people who care for and pray for one another. That we would go out of our way to spend time getting to know one another. That we would actually follow through with our promise of "I'll pray for you." That we wouldn't be afraid to be vulnerable in expressing our prayer needs in confidence. That we would help each other grow in an understanding that our significance on this planet is found only in God, not in ourselves or our performance; not even our performance on stage.

Closing Thoughts

So that's it. If you can use some of these ideas, please feel free to incorporate them into your own "codebook". It does help to define job descriptions, primarily so that everyone ­ especially technical support volunteers ­ understand what is expected of them before, during and after the worship service. But hopefully your team will go beyond what's "expected" of them. Ideally, each of us should learn every job related to the production. The audio team should learn and be able to fill in for any of the lighting jobs if needed. The video team should be able to assist with the audio team, and so on. This kind of cross-training breaks down the us-against-them barrier, it helps build a team spirit, and it's a practical system to ensure that the worship service will flow smoothly even if someone on the team gets up Sunday morning and realizes that he/she can't make it to the service on time.

For what it's worth, I don't think the guy ever put this "codebook" together. But it's a good idea, because it can serve as a good vehicle to communicate the vision of each group and how that fits into the overal vision of the church. So start writing.